The City Wide Strikes Again

You'll soon found out there will be many posts about the City Wide Garage Sale. We go every time and undoubtedly we leave with something we cannot live with out. Isn't that the way every Collectorator operates, though? No matter how much you tell yourself I do not NEED this....somehow you still rationalize it.

After we finally got there (between construction and weird weekend city events, it was a challenge) and had sufficiently griped about the new paid parking, we did a quick search for our favorite vendor and again she was not present. Granted, we had just seen her at Warrenton, but it's never too soon to see what amazing items she'll have in her tubs. It's a surprise every time. She took over the stock her mother had from a vintage clothing store years and years ago. The merchandise sat in tubs untouched for years until she finally started selling it. It's all completely fabulous and you never know what will be in the tubs each time.

Disappointed but not thwarted that she wasn't there, we carried on like good little collectorators! My Collectorating day was overall slow. I surmise it is because I had the parking voucher this time which meant I had to find something to buy so the dealer would give me $4 back on my parking. Usually it is not a challenge for me to find something to buy, but the parking voucher is like a anti-collectorating spell. So I pounced on the first thing I saw I liked, which was this stunning deco vintage rhinestone bracelet. I really like the design of this piece. It is unmarked but very well constructed. The rhinestone settings are attached to a chain instead of each other so they move a little independently of each other. It's pretty neato and will look great with all the light blue dresses I have. Of course in my excitement I completely forgot to use the voucher to get my $4 back, but the dealer was nice enough to take it after the fact.

My collectorating day was pretty much over after that until the very end. On a return trip to another booth I spied this tiered cake pan set. I love to bake, and cake is my absolute favorite thing. I am an admitted cake snob and I am 100% fine with that distinction. I know it sounds bad, but I am really picky about the cake I will eat. Why waste the calories on sub-par grocery store cake? There is one grocery store exception and that is Randalls. They make a pretty good cake for a grocery store. my absolute favorite "store" bought cake is from Texas French Bread Bakery. It's called the Hyde Park Fudge Cake and that name says everything you need to know about it. yummmmmmm. But other than that, I say why not just make the cake? It's usually cheaper in the end. I have always wanted tiered cake pans, and while I have 9 and 8 inch pans two tiers just does not cut it when you want to make a fancy tiered cake. Not that I have an occasion often to make a tiered cake, but I am ready now when the need arises. CollectoratorOne has already requested that her birthday cake for next year be made with the tiered cake pans so I already have justified spending the money. I love instant justification.

I have had one tiered cake in my life time so far and that was for my 30th birthday party. CollectoratorOne organized a smashing great party for me and our friend who makes the best cakes ever (I pale considerably to him in this department) made me a fabulous orange flavored tiered cake. OMG it was AMAZING. I told him he needs to make me a 4 tiered cake for my next milestone birthday. Hey, I even have four tiered pans now he can borrow...haha... justification #2!

Anyway, back to the story at hand...CollectoratorOne had the best day overall. Granted, she is still in a recession so she should not be spending money. Therefore she had to make a decision on which item she'd take home with her. It was a hard choice. She found many tantalizing things to lure her money out of her pocket book including a very nicely priced pink Miramar planter, a great deal on a deer vase she had been wanting, and the Anchor Hocking version of the Kitchen Utensils mixing bowl set she wants. So the biggest thrill of the day was waiting for her decision. We happened by a friends' booth on the way out, before she made her ultimate decision, and she snagged a white, pink, and gold bird for her bedroom for $2. It matches a set I got in Warrenton a year ago that are blue and gold. That purchase primed the pump to stick with the pink and so she got the Miramar planter. It's so cute. Here's a picture of it on her flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/3483938074/. The planter was only $8 so she got out of there for $10 which is probably a record for us! Especially when you think she went home with two items for $10. Amazing recession-time collectorating!

I picked up a record for $2 while she was paying for the planter. I collect records (what do I not collect???) although only half-heartedly. Anymore, if it doesn't fit into my theme of either a Frank Sinatra record or cover art with hearts or stars I tend to lose interest. This one fit into the star category and turned out to be a good record. My favorite track on the record is by the Willis Brothers called "When I come Driving Through". It's a catchy little tune about attracting girls with your truck. hahaha... I love it! I didn't know much about the Willis Brothers but it turns out they are famous for another trucking song called Give Me 40 Acres to Turn this Big Rig Around. http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/willis_brothers/bio.jhtml

All in all it was another fun day at the City Wide. There won't be another for awhile... sigh... what will we do? I know what I will do! Bake a cake in my new pans!

City Wide Shopping

Every month we have a city-wide garage sale. It's not like it sounds, I spent a good number of years in this town before I realized that I would actually like the City Wide garage sale. I didn't start going regularly until I met CollectoratorOne (http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratorone/), and for the past 10 years you can count on one hand the number that we've both missed. It's aisles and aisles of collectibles that change monthly, a Collectorator's dream shopping venue. It used to be held in the old city coliseum but they tore that down for no reason other than to build a bigger, and probably more insulated, venue to host such events. I miss the coliseum, it was a perfect old dusty venue for dusty old items . I especially miss digging through the piles of clothes the Miracle Man would bring, vintage clothes $6 each, "It's a Miracle!". He'd pile up the clothes up the bleachers and we'd slowly but surely move the entire pile up or over just a little so we could view each piece. And believe me we saw each piece. I think I owe 25% of my wardrobe to the Miracle Man. Now, he still comes, but the clothes are on tables and try as we might, it's just not the same. Nevertheless, the City Wide each month brings all sorts of treasures. We were really hoping our favorite new vendor would be there this month but no luck. I did manage to snag a few fun items though.

The find of the day has to be this 1940's McCoy (hopefully not fake) Bird of Paradise statue. It's the right measurements but you never know. The reason I say this is because I obtained it for a mere $6, "It's a Miracle!" Either the people did not know what they had, or it's a fake and/or reproduction. Either way given I love birds (if you've seen my flickr site you know this already, http://www.flickr.com/photos/collectoratortoo/) a $6 bird statue is still a find in my book any day!

I also scored two frilly nightgowns from the 1960s. Nothing makes me happier than frilly nightgowns (except maybe birds!). A nice yellow Vanity Fair one with a matching peignoir robe and it turns out it was more of a score than I thought. I bought it because it was the right size and yellow, a color I do not have. BUT, I have been searching for awhile now for the kind that has this goddess like train from the middle of the back. I have no idea what this style is called (I wish I knew!), but I love it. I first saw Samantha on Bewitched wear one and then one of Don Draper's many love interests on Mad Men. I coveted one. Now I have one! I'll post a picture of it soon. It's incredibly difficult to photograph such things with the proper justice. The other one I scored was a pink Munsingwear one with cute little flowers on the bodice. No robe with this one. super cute. It's pictured here below.

CollectoratorOne indulged me as well at the end of the day by letting me dig through the Miracle Man's pile of aprons. Much easier to dig through than the table full of clothes. I am obsessed with finding cute aprons of every color AND I am trying to amass an entire holiday collection. I got a step closer with a nice blue one covered with stars. It'll be a great one for Fourth of July! Ok so it doesn't have RED in it but it'll work... I did also find a 1940's half apron that DOES have red and white stripes but no stars. I guess I can wear both and satisfy ALL of the 4th of July criteria....Warrenton is up next... stay tuned....